Why have MI struggled this season?

Mumbai Indians have struggled to effectively halt opposing teams' momentum once they start building it, which is something the five-time IPL champions must address going forward, feels batter Tim David.

MI find themselves in the eighth spot with only three wins from eight outings. They suffered a nine-wicket loss to table-toppers Rajasthan Royals in their previous outing. Barring Jasprit Bumrah, their bowling has been disappointing.

"Someone like Booms (Jasprit Bumrah) has been winning games for us but we haven't been effective enough in shutting teams down when they get going.

"That is a challenge going forward," David said on the eve of MI's match against Delhi Capitals here.

"It was pretty obvious against RR that wasn't the standard that we set ourselves to. That is the challenge for the playing group, we set the tone," the Australian added.

Known to be perennial slow starters, MI find themselves in a precarious situation and cannot afford to lose another game if they are serious about making the play-offs.

"Obviously we had a slow start to the season, then we played some better cricket. If we had won our last game it would have been our fourth win in five matches so far.

"We need to play our best cricket it is coming to that point in the season," David said.

MI are scheduled to play Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders twice each besides Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last five fixtures, which are must-win fixtures for them. All three teams are in the top four currently, making MI's task that much harder.

"If we want to win the competition we need to beat the best in the competition. We haven't played all those sides but if we beat them, we are in the playoffs where all the teams considered the best will be."

Bumrah has been Mumbai's knight in shining armour, winning matches for them single-handedly and David is glad he doesn't have to face "the best in the world".

"He is incredibly consistent, he believes in his own skillset and has a history of good performance. He has a unique action that makes him difficult to pick up, he bowls fast, nails yorkers and also has hard-to-pick slower balls."

• IPL 2024